MCI to incorporate the diagnosis component of pathology in curriculum

The Medical Council of India(MCI) is soon going to to include the prediction aspect of pathology into medical curriculum in order to improve the treatment aspect of healthcare. Always seen as a tool for diagnosis, pathology's prognostic component was paid less attention to. According to MCI's definition, pathologists are fortune tellers , therefore, they should not stick to diagnosis alone.

Announcement to this effect was Dr Vedprakash Mishra, Chancellor of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences while welcoming the newly formed team of Vidharbha Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (VAPM). He said, "India forms 17% of the world population against less than 2% of geographical space. It harbours the burden of 21.6% non-communicable diseases and 43% communicable. It directly puts to question the present infrastructure's capacity to tackle the situation."

Dr Mishra and Dr Anita Borges, internationally acclaimed surgical pathologist from Mumbai after constituting the new team of VAPM, headed by well-known pathologist Major Dr Shantanu Mukerjee, told The Hitavada, "Any patient goes for his investigations to pathologist. The investigation gives the diagnosis, a clarity. When that patient recovers, the follow-up investigations are never conducted. So, when patient feels better, he stops consuming medicine with an impression that he is better now. If follow-up investigations are conducted then it might gives a different picture that would bring quality in treatment modality."

Dr R Ravi, a reputed surgical pathologist from Nagpur spoke about the limitations of thyroid FNAC, while Dr Nitin Gangane, Director Professor & Head, Department of Pathology, MGIMS, Sevagram elaborated on 'Pathology of leprosy".